Renowned neurosurgeon, professor and author, Arthur L. Day, M.D., was named the sole neurosurgery recipient of the McGovern Medical School Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award for 2016. The award recognizes select faculty at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth who provide exemplary teaching to medical students, residents and graduate students.

Criteria for the award include: teaching activities, quality of teaching, educational administration and service, curriculum development/assessment, and educational research and scholarship. Honorees of the award are named each May, which is designated as teaching excellence month at the medical school.

Dr. Day is the Program Director and Director of Clinical Education in Neurosurgery at Memorial Hermann Mischer Neuroscience Institute at the Texas Medical Center and the Vice Chair professor at the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. Fellowship trained and board certified, Dr. Day’s highly decorated career includes the American Association of Neurological Surgeons’ prestigious Harvey Cushing Medal, the Founders’ Laurel Award from the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the Neurosurgical Society of America Medal of Honor.

Highly respected in one of the most complex areas of health care, Dr. Day has worked in various leadership roles, which include serving as president of the Society of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and as the chair of the American Board of Neurological Surgery, Joint Section of Cerebrovascular Surgery of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Day also served on the Residency Review Committee for Neurosurgery and is currently the chair of the Committee for Advanced Subspecialty Training of the Society of Neurological Surgeons. He has been named multiple times to Best Doctors in America.

Dr. Day’s specific expertise lies in cerebrovascular and skull base surgery with specializations in microsurgical treatments of brain tumors and minimally invasive spinal surgery. He has published more than 170 journal articles and book chapters, co-edited two books about neurological sports injuries, and has been a visiting professor at more than 50 training programs.

Prior to joining Mischer Neuroscience Institute, Dr. Day practiced at the University of Florida for 25 years, advancing from professor to co-chair and program director of the department of Neurosurgery. In 2002, Dr. Day moved to Boston, where he served as a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and had a clinical practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Day went on to serve as the associate chair and residency program director of the department of Neurological Surgery at Brigham and Women’s and Children’s Hospital Boston. Later, he was the chairman of the department, and was also the director of the Cerebrovascular Center and the Neurologic Sports Injury Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.